1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, relates to a system and method for reviewing audio items on a wireless communication device prior to making a purchase decision.
2. Related Art
The advent of wireless personal communications devices has revolutionized the telecommunications industry. Cellular, personal communications services (xe2x80x9cPCSxe2x80x9d) and other services provide wireless personal communications to businesses and individuals at home, in the office, on the road, and at any other location the wireless network can reach. Wireless telephone subscribers no longer must use public telephones along the road or wait until returning to the home or office to check messages or to return important business calls. Instead, wireless subscribers can carry out day-to-day business from the privacy of an automobile, from a remote job site, while walking along the airport concourse, and anywhere else that a personal communications signal is accessible.
Thus, it is no surprise that since the introduction of the cellular telephone service, the number of wireless telephone subscribers has increased steadily. Today, there are a staggering number of wireless telephone subscribers whose ranks are growing rapidly. In fact, many households have multiple wireless telephones in addition to their conventional land line services.
With a market of this size, there is fierce competition among hardware manufacturers and service providers. In an attempt to lure customers, most providers offer handsets with desirable features or attributes such as small size, light weight, longer battery life, speed dial, and the like. Many recent additions to the marketplace include multi-functional handsets that even provide pocket organizer functions integrated into the wireless handset. Most manufacturers, however, are still scrambling to add new features to their wireless communication devices to snare a portion of this booming market.
One way in which new features are added to wireless communication devices is by integrating the devices into the World Wide Web (xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d). Such integration allows the countless services available through the Web to be extended to wireless communications devices. One such service allows a wireless device to connect to a Web server that provides desirable content from the Web such as stock quotes and sports scores. Additionally, services such as on-line shopping are also becoming widely available to wireless consumers.
A significant drawback of on-line shopping with a wireless device is that items cannot be seen or experienced as they can when using the resource rich platform offered by a conventional computer connected to the Web. For example, the minimal display size of a wireless device, its limited processing power, limited memory, limited ability to display complex graphics and colors, and limited bandwidth severely restrict the ability of wireless consumers to see, interact with, and preview items. These restrictions have a negative impact on purchasing decisions made by wireless consumers.
One particular problem is encountered when wireless consumers are shopping for audio items such as a book-on-tape, a musical compact disc (xe2x80x9cCDxe2x80x9d), or a movie soundtrack. Due to the limited bandwidth and processing power of the wireless device, the Web server cannot economically send the audio item to the wireless device for local playback. Moreover, due to the nature of the packet switched data transmission between the wireless device and the Web server, the audio item cannot be delivered from the Web server to the wireless device with commercially reliable quality.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes the significant problems of the conventional wireless consumer shopping systems as described above.
The present invention provides a system and method for wireless consumers to listen to an audio item prior to making a purchase decision while shopping on-line. Typically, a wireless consumer that shops on-line does so by connecting to a data server computer from a wireless device. The data server computer exchanges data with the wireless device, thereby allowing the wireless consumer to navigate through a menu system containing various shopping options and selections. When the wireless consumer desires to purchase an audio item, the decision to purchase can be advantageously facilitated by allowing the wireless consumer to listen to the audio item through the wireless communication device.
Initially, the wireless consumer establishes a first data connection to the data server computer. This connection allows the wireless consumer to navigate through the menu system and select the particular audio item of interest. The wireless consumer also selects the option for listening to the audio item. The data server computer then instructs the wireless device to terminate the first data connection and establish a voice connection with an audio server computer. Additionally, the data server computer informs the audio server computer of an impending voice connection from the wireless device. In particular, the data server computer sends a unique audio item identification and wireless device identification to the audio server computer.
The audio server, after identifying the wireless device and establishing the voice connection, plays the audio item over the voice connection for the wireless consumer. The audio server computer may also play a preamble before playing the audio item over the voice connection. For example, the preamble may state the name of the song and artist about to be played, or perhaps introduce the song with a brief advertisement. Once the audio item has been played, the wireless consumer may have the option to listen to additional audio items or terminate the voice connection.
Subsequently, after the voice connection has been terminated, the wireless device can establish a second data connection with the data server and resume navigation through the menu system containing various shopping options and selections at the point where the first data connection was terminated.